Those numbers sounded too low, which prompted me to look into it.
They were both featured on other editions of Techcrunch, not the main site. One was on Techcrunch UK[1], with a short post, the other on Techcrunch TV (way down with a single link in a short story)[2], both before the merge.
To say that it is important to the point of the story to mention that they weren't featured on the main Techcrunch site is an understatement. While the EU and TV properties pre-merger were doing well, the main site is an order of magnitude larger.
I used to work at TC, but I still refer a lot of startups there for stories and have been keeping up with the numbers. You can expect referrals in the range of a few thousand to up to 40k. In terms of the 'startup' space (that is anything funding related, launch announcements, hiring announcements etc.) there is usually no better outlet, since every single venture capitalist, journalist, blogger, entrepreneur, potential executive employee etc. reads the site.
The exception is if you are in a niche which can be better served by other blogs.
Being featured on Techcrunch usually leads to a couple of more blog posts from other sites, and it can usually lead to appearing on Techmeme - which every tech blogger and journalists checks regularly every day.
There is no doubt that with a good product a mainstream media feature will get you more long-term users. Every startup and announcement is different, you need to take all fo this into account when considering where and how you want to release your news.
What I can tell you is that a feature on TC definitely doesn't send referrals in the dozens - I think the post should be updated to clarify that.
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Update: I just got a response from the author of the OP on Twitter. When I asked him why there was no mention of his stories being on TC Europe and no links to them, he replied[3]: "I actually did, I'm not sure why but they seem to have disappeared in the editing process. I'll try to get them put back in." and "Btw, both were featured on the TC Europe homepage in the main stream. I appreciate it probably should be more clear."
It is probably worth mentioning at this point that 'the editor' of The Kernel (although he may not have been the editor of this post), Milo, was the same guy who wrote the story on TC[1] referred to in the post. He worked at TC Europe and is now the editor at The Kernel - they somehow talked around this fact in the post without mentioning it.
I just pinged him on Twitter to ask if he removed the references or if they were simply just lost somehow.
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Update 2: Further, from the author: "Mm, but this was a while back (2009), Milo has made no secret of being frustrated with TC Europe. I'm writing of my own volition." [5] and "I don't think missing links was intentional. I had also linked to Jottify and a few other things and they're also missing."[6]
From Milo: (when asked if he was editor on that post): "Hi there. No I wasn't - but I will nip in and make clear"[7]
The links may have been dropped, but there is still no distinction in the actual content that the post isn't about the main Techcrunch site.
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note the link is now to techcrunch.com but that is because the sites have been merged
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2009/08/10/enovella-gives-aspiring-aut...
[2] http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/07/techcrunch-tv-three-startup...
[3] https://twitter.com/#!/jacklenox/status/190121611578441728
[4] https://twitter.com/#!/jacklenox/status/190122178547691520
[5] https://twitter.com/#!/jacklenox/status/190126807595495425
[6] https://twitter.com/#!/jacklenox/status/190127630606020608
[7] https://twitter.com/#!/Nero/status/190127568152838144